Eye - 18 March 2016
Voltaire's history of Friends
The curious attention of Voltaire
The French Enlightenment writer Voltaire is best known for his satirical novella Candide. He also penned, however, a series of Letters on the English. Four of the twenty-four letters, written during Voltaire’s exile in England, were on the subject of Quakers.
In his very first sentence he explains that ‘the doctrine and history of so extraordinary a people were worthy [of] the attention of the curious…
‘To acquaint myself with them I made a visit to one of the most eminent Quakers in England, who, after having traded thirty years, had the wisdom to prescribe limits to his fortune and to his desires, and was settled in a little solitude not far from London. Being come into it, I perceived a small but regularly built house, vastly neat, but without the least pomp of furniture. The Quaker who owned it was a hale, ruddy complexioned old man, who had never been afflicted with sickness because he had always been insensible to passions, and a perfect stranger to intemperance.’
Voltaire goes on to relate a wide-ranging conversation, covering baptism and communion, hat doffing and titles, plain dress and swearing oaths, as well as the lack of priests and acceptance of female ministry. Voltaire goes on to relate: ‘Such was the substance of the conversation I had with this very singular person; but I was greatly surprised to see him come the Sunday following and take me with him to the Quakers’ meeting.’
The Meeting Voltaire experienced saw 700 Friends seated ‘and the silence was universal’, followed by ministry in tongues, which left the writer dubious: ‘I asked my friend how it was possible for the judicious part of their assembly to suffer such a babbling? “We are obliged,” said he, “to suffer it, because no one knows when a man rises up to hold forth whether he will be moved by the Spirit or by folly…”’
Two letters are dedicated to the history of Quakers, which Voltaire describes as ‘more singular than their opinions’, including the activities of key figures like George Fox, Robert Barclay and William Penn.
His opinion of the future of Quakerism, less than a hundred years old at the time of writing, was not rosy: ‘I am not able to guess what fate Quakerism may have in America, but I perceive it dwindles away daily in England. In all countries where liberty of conscience is allowed, the established religion will at last swallow up all the rest.
‘Quakers are disqualified from being members of parliament; nor can they enjoy any post or preferment, because an oath must always be taken on these occasions, and they never swear. They are therefore reduced to the necessity of subsisting upon traffic. Their children, whom the industry of their parents has enriched, are desirous of enjoying honours, of wearing buttons and ruffles; and quite ashamed of being called Quakers they become converts to the Church of England, merely to be in the fashion.’
Voltaire’s other letters covered topics such as English government, trade, inoculation, key figures of the day such as Isaac Newton, scientific concepts and academies, as well as the nature of tragedy and comedy: ‘If you have a mind to understand the English comedy, the only way to do this will be for you to go to England, to spend three years in London, to make yourself master of the English tongue, and to frequent the playhouse every night… true comedy is the speaking picture of the follies and ridiculous foibles of a nation; so that he only is able to judge of the painting who is perfectly acquainted with the people it represents.’
Comments
Please login to add a comment
